Adam Delmage, 23, said he was hanging outside the chopper, flown by experienced pilot Paul Debenham, filming a truck rollover about 11am in the Swan Valley when ''the engine just quit''. He is understood to have told colleagues that he doesn't want to fly again.

``We started going down and just basically I was filming it so I had to push myself back into the cabin, and just brace myself,'' Mr Delmage told Ten News.

``I just kind of climbed to the top, tried to jump out but the harness was still on so I ripped the cord and jumped out the chopper and I just laid there for a sec and looked up and saw the tail was up one end, the chopper was on its side - and I thought the pilot was dead... I didn't know whether to run back and help him out. I didn't know if it was going to go up in flames.''

But the young cameraman, who was treated for a sore back at Royal Perth Hospital befo